Could be, but I'm banking on minutes played will cancel out any ball-handling duties being shared. One other thing that will hurt his assist numbers more than likely, though, is the loss of Jamison. Sure, he could be a black hole offensively and he was a matador on defense, but the guy can still score. It isn't all that easy to find a guy who can throw up 25-30 points on any given night.

It should be noted that the last full month he played prior to his injury, he was averaging 32+ minutes, 20 points, 6.7 assists, 5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game.

I believe those numbers are completely in-play for Kyrie this season since he will likely by playing in that 30-35 minute per game range all year.

One last thing... Having Ramon Sessions for over half the year was a nice luxury for the rookie last year and it allowed Byron to monitor Kyrie's minutes very closely, as he had a very capable backup. There is no backup PG like Sessions' on this year's roster, so if Waiters takes some of the duties away from Kyrie, it isn't necessarily something new.